Collection: Biography & Memoir

This bilingual book allows young readers to enter Celia Cruz's life as she becomes a well-known singer in her homeland of Cuba, then moves to New York City and Miami where she and others create a new type of music called salsa. School Library Journal has named My Name is Celia "[a]n exuberant picture-book biography . . . a brilliant introduction to a significant woman and her music."

Groundbreaking American pilot Amelia Earhart is the 2nd hero in the New York Times bestselling picture book biography series for ages 5 to 8. (Cover may vary)

Amelia Earhart refused to accept no for an answer; she dared to do what no one had ever done before, and became the first woman to fly a plane all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. This biography follows her from childhood to her first flying lessons and onward to her multi-record-breaking career as a pilot.

This friendly, fun biography series inspired the PBS Kids TV show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. One great role model at a time, these books encourage kids to dream big. Included in each book are:

- A timeline of key events in the hero's history
- Photos that bring the story more fully to life
- Comic-book-style illustrations that are irresistibly adorable
- Childhood moments that influenced the hero
- Facts that make great conversation-starters
- A character trait that made the person heroic and that readers can aspire to

You'll want to collect each book in this dynamic, informative series!

In 1991, Doug Tompkins abandoned his comfortable life in San Francisco and flew 6,500 miles south to a shack in Patagonia. Instead of the Golden Gate Bridge, Tompkins stared out the window at Volcano Michinmahuida, blanketed in snow and prowled by mountain lions. Shielded by waterfalls and wilderness, the founder of such groundbreaking companies as Esprit and The North Face suddenly regretted the corporate capitalism from which he had profited from years. As a CEO he had caused much pollution and, "made things nobody needed." Now, he declared, it was time to reverse the damage to the planet, and maybe even himself.

In A Wild Idea, award-winning journalist and bestselling author Jonathan Franklin tells the incredible true story of Douglas Tompkins, who became one of the primary founders of our modern conservation and land protection movement.

Piloting his small plane, Tompkins explored the uninhabited lands of Patagonia and gaped at the singular beauty: active volcanoes, forests never logged, rivers never dammed--all so undisturbed, so exquisitely designed.

Could he protect this wild beauty? For the ensuing quarter century, that dream-- that obsession--became his life. Only in death did it become his legacy.

Discover legendary commanders, tremendous fights, elite soldiers, and courageous individuals whose deeds truly made the difference in this jaw-dropping guide to the biggest war the world has ever seen.

From massive aerial battles that clouded the skies with planes to deathly secret operations deep behind enemy lines, the events of World War II are some of the most awe-inspiring of all time.

Packed with trivia, epic battles, and amazing illustrations, World War II comes alive for kids like no textbook can in this account from Ben Thompson that's perfect for history buffs and reluctant readers.

The world's greatest card game awaits you.

Combining the strategic engagement of Bridge and the risk-taking swagger of Poker, Bid Whist has captivated luminaries like Justice Thurgood Marshall, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson-and inspired a passionate following in Black American communities for generations.

Accessible to players of all ages and backgrounds, the fast-paced game sparks camaraderie and rewards teamwork worthy of the best jazz ensembles and basketball teams.

The Gist of Bid Whist equips you with a firm grasp of the game's fundamentals and a deep understanding of Bid Whist strategy. It also enhances the "card sense" that will enable you to thrive at any of your favorite trump card games, including Spades, Hearts, Euchre, Oh Hell, Bridge-or, of course, Bid Whist.

The Gist of Bid Whist explores the fascinating role of the Pullman porters, who crisscrossed the nation, sharing the latest jazz and blues records, insights that helped fuel the Great Migration, and the card game that was integral to life as a porter, Bid Whist. Poetically, Bid Whist would prove to be vital to the porters' ultimate heroic impact on America.

Lamont Jones is a boxing lawyer and card game enthusiast devoted to helping Bid Whist reclaim its cultural prominence. The Gist of Bid Whist is part celebration, part workshop, part cultural history-with a generous dash of humor, sports anecdotes and tips contributed by a vibrant cast of engaging personalities.

Let's play Bid Whist!

Two Artists, a Singular Friendship, and a Six-State Quest for a Diagnosis

Hadley Ferguson and Catherine Armsden, a painter and a writer, have each spent years seeking a diagnosis for their troubling symptoms. When they are finally diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, they meet in an online support group and quickly become long-distance friends. But for Hadley, the shared diagnosis is still not correct. She embarks on a traumatic, six-state odyssey that Catherine documents in vivid detail.

Part critical commentary on the American healthcare system and part primer on Parkinson's disease, An Alert, Well-Hydrated Artist in No Acute Distress tackles many topics beyond Hadley's and Catherine's personal experience, such as the causes and treatment of Parkinson's; navigating the doctor-patient relationship; so-called cognitive errors made in diagnosis; and the role of empathy in healthcare. This moving memoir will resonate with anyone who's had difficulty getting a diagnosis or lives with chronic disease, but will also inspire all readers with Hadley's and Catherine's ultimately victorious parallel quests to achieve the most fulfilling creative work of their careers.

"Catherine Armsden's wonderfully insightful book should be read by anyone who's ever received a difficult diagnosis as well as anyone who's delivered one. ... The book is dedicated to those who don't look away, and An Alert Well Hydrated Artist in No Acute Distress never does."

-Dave Iverson, journalist and author of Winter Stars: An Elderly Mother, an Aging Son and Life's Final Journey

See E.B. Sledge's story in the HBO miniseries The Pacific!

China Marine is the extraordinary sequel to E.B. Sledge's memoir, With the Old Breed, which remains the most powerful and moving account of the U.S. Marines in World War II. Sledge continues his story where With the Old Breed left off and recounts the compelling conclusion of his Marine career.

After Japan's surrender in 1945, Sledge and his company were sent to China to maintain order and to calm the seething cauldron of political and ideological unrest created by opposing factions. His regiment was the first Marine unit to return to the ancient city of Peiping (now Beijing) where they witnessed the last of old China and the rise of the Communist state. Sledge also recounts the difficulty of returning to his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, and resuming civilian life while haunted by shadows of close combat. Through the discipline of writing and the study of biology, he shows how he came to terms with the terrifying memories that had plagued him for years.

Poignant and compelling, China Marine provides a frank depiction of the real costs of war, emotional and psychological as well as physical, and reveals the enduring bond that develops between men who face the horrors of war.

Long before Walt Disney, a young woman revolutionized the landscape of animation using light, a pair of scissors, and her imagination. From acclaimed author C. E. Winters and debut illustrator Matt Schu, STEM meets the arts in this engaging nonfiction picture book biography about Lotte Reiniger. Cut! is an exceptional choice for classrooms and for fans of Hidden Figures, I Dissent, and the Questioneers books.

In the 1920s, when young women had limited opportunities, Lotte Reiniger used her curiosity and ingenuity to change the landscape of animation forever. Inspired by the films of her youth, and encouraged by teachers and mentors working in film at the time, Lotte Reiniger honed her skills in cutting out paper silhouettes to use in stop-motion animation.

Eventually, her talent and her drive led her to invent the multiplane camera, which allowed her to give her animation depth of field. With her small team, Lotte designed and directed the oldest full-length animated film in existence.

Acclaimed author C. E. Winters and debut artist Matt Schu expertly introduce young readers to Lotte Reiniger, a remarkable and often overshadowed historical figure. Balancing biographical information with a compelling story, Cut! follows Lotte Reiniger from childhood to her first groundbreaking accomplishments. Matt Schu's dynamic illustrations draw inspiration from Reiniger's own artistry and are full of detail, color, and light. Cut! is an excellent nonfiction picture book perfect for classrooms and family sharing.

Features extensive backmatter, including a timeline of Lotte Reiniger's life, an author's note, and sources.

TIMES 2020, los 100 mejores libros juveniles de todos los tiempos

Un testimonio único sobre el horror y la barbarie, y una celebración del espíritu humano y las ganas de vivir.

El Diario de Anne Frank es una de las autobiografías más leídas de todos los tiempos, además de uno de los documentos más perdurables del siglo XX. Desde su publicación en 1947, continúa cautivando a lectores de todas las edades y ha sido leído por millones de personas en todo el mundo.

En junio de 1942, tras la invasión Nazi de Holanda, los ocho miembros de la familia Frank se ocultaron en un desván anexo al edificio donde el padre de Anne tenía sus oficinas. Allí permanecieron recluidos hasta agosto de 1944, fecha en que fueron detenidos y enviados a campos de concentración. En ese lugar y en las más precarias condiciones, Anne Frank, con tan solo trece años, escribió su estremecedor Diario. Descubierto poco tiempo después en ese mismo ático, el Diario captura el admirable espíritu de Anne y su familia mientras sobreviven al horror más grande que el mundo moderno había visto, sin perder jamás su jubilosa y sobrecogedora humanidad.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

TIMES 2020 100 Best YA of All Times

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has become a world classic--a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.

In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annexe" of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.

In this searing, honest memoir, a Black queer emergency-room nurse works the front lines of care during COVID-19.Britney Daniels is a Black, masculine-presenting, tattooed lesbian from a working-class background. For the last five years, she has been working as an emergency-room nurse. She began Journal of a Black Queer Nurse as a personal diary, a tool to heal from the day-to-day traumas of seeing too much and caring too much.Hilarious, gut-wrenching, and infuriating by turns, these stories are told from the perspective of a deeply empathetic, no-nonsense young nurse, who highlights the way race, inequality, and a profit-driven healthcare system make the hospital a place where systemic racism is lived. Whether it is giving one's own clothes to a homeless patient, sticking up for patients of color in the face of indifference from white doctors and nurses, or nursing one's own back pain accrued from transporting too many bodies as the morgues overflowed during the pandemic, Journal of a Black Queer Nurse reveals the ways in which care is much more than treating a physical body and how the commitment to real care-care that involves listening to and understanding patients in a deeper sense--demands nurses, especially nurses of color, must also be warriors.

It was the storm of the century, boasting waves over one hundred feet high--a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm." In a book that has become a classic, Sebastian Junger explores the history of the fishing industry, the science of storms, and the candid accounts of the people whose lives the storm touched. The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller that makes us feel like we've been caught, helpless, in the grip of a force of nature beyond our understanding or control.

Winner of the American Library Association's 1998 Alex Award.

This visual celebration of the world's most celebrated thinkers tells the fascinating stories of their lives and pioneering ideas.

This book would be great if you are interested in philosophy, politics, history, and literature or would like to broaden your understanding of philosophy. Philosophers Who Changed History places well-known philosophers in their historical and cultural context, allowing you to see how they came to influence philosophy.

In this edition, you can find:

-An overview of the lives and works of around 80 of the world's most influential philosophers - from the Classical era to the present
-Eight pages of brand-new content with 12 new entries, including Frederick Douglass and Luce Irigaray
-Lavishly illustrated portraits of each philosopher, alongside photographs of their homes, studies, and personal artefacts

Each philosopher is introduced with a realistic portrait and biographical entries which trace the friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired and influenced them. Entries explore the key ideas and working methods of each individual and set their ideas in context, conveying a powerful sense of the place and the period of history in which they lived. Philosophers Who Changed History provides revealing insights into what drove each individual to develop new ways of understanding the world.

The author of the award-winning memoir Red Paint returns with a razor-sharp, clear-eyed collection of essays on what it means to be a proudly queer indigenous woman in the United States today

Drawing on a rich family archive as well as the anthropological work of her late great-grandmother, Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe explores themes ranging from indigenous identity and stereotypes to cultural displacement and environmental degradation to understand what our experiences teach us about the power of community, commitment, and conscientious honesty.

Unapologetically punk, the essays in Thunder Song segue from the miraculous to the mundane, from the spiritual to the physical, as they examine the role of art--in particular music--and community in helping a new generation of indigenous people claim the strength of their heritage while defining their own path in the contemporary world.

"Discerning and significant." --Poetry Foundation
"A sharp memoir in verse." --LitHub

This powerful and timely collection of autobiographical poems from Yale Young Poets Award Winner and Philadelphia's former Poet Laureate Airea D. Matthews about the economics of class is a brilliant intellectual and artistic contribution to the ongoing conversation about American inequality.

As a former student of economics, Airea D. Matthews was fascinated and disturbed by 18th-century Scottish economist Adam Smith's magnum opus The Wealth of Nations. Now, she presents a direct challenge to Smith's theory of the invisible hand, which claims self-interest is the key to optimal economic outcomes. By juxtaposing redacted texts by Smith and the French Marxist Guy Debord with autobiographical prose and poems, Bread and Circus personally offers how self-interest fails when it reduces people to commodity and spectacle.

A layered collection to be read and reread, with poems that range from tragic to humorous, in forms as varied and nuanced as the ideas the book considers, Bread and Circus asks what it is to have survived, indeed to have flourished, and at what cost. "Full of humane wisdom, this powerful volume forces readers to acknowledge systemic inequity" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and is ideal for fans of Elizabeth Alexander, Natalie Diaz, Eve Ewing, and Gregory Pardlo.

Drinking Like Ladies is dedicated to the proposition that a woman's place is behind the bar. . . or in front of it. . . or really any place she pleases.

Acclaimed bartenders Kirsten Amann and Misty Kalkofen have scoured the globe commissioning cocktail recipes--from equally acclaimed female bartenders--to pair with 75 illustrated biographies of trailblazing ladies throughout history. Each two-page spread features an exciting new drink recipe inspired by an insightful illustrated biography of a remarkable woman like Princess Diana, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ada Lovelace or Wilma Mankiller.

From gin to whiskey, tequila to punch, Drinking Like Ladies has a twist and a toast for every tippler, whatever your base spirit.

Now a Hallmark Hall of Fame special, "When Love is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story, " this is the biography of Al-Anon creator and wife of AA cofounder Bill W.

Acclaimed author and screenwriter William G. Borchert explores the life and times of Lois Burnham Wilson, the spirited creator of Al-Anon and wife of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson. From her privileged childhood in turn-of-the-century New York City to her socialite status as the 'Wall Street Wife' of the charismatic Bill in the roaring '20s to the couple's audacious crosscountry motorcycle excursions in the 1930s, Lois was every bit the adventure-seeker. But nothing could have prepared her for the chaos, anguish, and loss caused by Bill's seventeen-year descent into the depths of alcoholism.In this moving story, Borchert reveals how the couple rose from a life of despair to institute one of the twentieth century's most important social movements, and how Lois created a legacy of hope for millions of families devastated by addiction through her uncommon love and unshakable faith. Borchert drew from a series of exclusive personal interviews with Lois Wilson to write this definitive biography.